Chris Dawson gets three more years for grooming, abusing girl

Grey and shrunken, the killer who once dazzled, manipulated and exploited a vulnerable schoolgirl tells his sentencing hearing he has support inside Long Bay jail.

Chris Dawson and ‘AB’, the woman he groomed and abused as a 16-year-old schoolgirl, on their wedding day.

Christopher Michael Dawson will serve three years’ imprisonment for the unlawful carnal knowledge of a 16-year-old schoolgirl who later became his wife, and then his accuser.

The sentence, delivered by Judge Sarah Huggett in the NSW District Court on Friday, will be served partially concurrently with the 24-year term Dawson is already serving for the murder of his first wife, Lynette Simms.

The new sentence, to commence in August 2039, has a two-year non parole period and will extend Dawson’s mandatory time behind bars by an extra year, to August 2041.

By then he will be 93 years old.

It might all be moot, however – new laws in NSW, achieved by a campaign led by Lyn’s grieving family, means Dawson won’t be eligible for parole at all unless he reveals what he did with Lyn’s body.

If he maintains his silence, Dawson will not see freedom until 2046, when he is 98 years old.

“It’s a bit of a rollercoaster,” Dawson told psychiatrist Dr Olav Nielssen, who provided a report to the court indicating Dawson has symptoms of anxiety – although he has rejected medication for the condition – and is in the early stages of dementia.

“Some days I’ll wake up feeling all right. Other days I feel unmotivated,” Dawson told the doctor.

Wearing prison greens, including a khaki zip-up jacket, and clasping his hands in front of his face, Dawson looked dejected as he appeared via video-link from Long Bay prison.

The once-glamorous rugby league star, who dazzled the schoolgirls of the Northern Beaches in his heyday, is a grey and shrunken man.

After murdering his wife Lyn – mother of his two daughters – in January 1982, and disposing of her body in a place unknown, Dawson moved to Queensland with AB, with whom he had another daughter.

In 2018, he was exposed as a killer and predator in The Australian’s global blockbuster podcast The Teacher’s Pet, by national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas.

Chris Dawson walks into the NSW Supreme Court before his conviction for murder in August 2022. Picture: John Grainger

But the notoriety has earned him some support in Long Bay, at least.

“The offender’s mental health deteriorated following his arrest and the associated media and public interest,” Judge Huggett said.

“He experienced a further decline in his mental health when he was admitted to custody on 30th August 2022, having been found guilty of the murder of Lynette Dawson. Although he reports experiencing taunting by inmates from neighbouring wings, apparently the inmates within his wing are supportive.”

Judge Huggett said public defender Claire Wasley had submitted “that the offender’s cognitive decline means he’s an inappropriate vehicle for general deterrence” – that is, for a sentence that would deter other members of the community from offending.

The judge said: “I reject that submission. The offence was committed at a time when there is no evidence suggesting any cognitive impairment. The offender elected to engage in a sexual relationship with the victim (known in these proceedings as AB) when she was his student and he was her teacher and in circumstances where I consider his moral culpability to be high.”

Chris Dawson as he appears today.

The judge said Dawson “did not use threatening words or conduct either to commit the offence or to secure the victim’s consent and silence, and he sought to ensure that she was ‘comfortable all the way’ when they first had sex.

“There was, however, a degree of manipulation and exploitation in the offender’s assertion that what he was doing was effectively something the victim needed and or that it would be helpful.

In her submissions, prosecutor Emma Blizard told the court Dawson engineered close contact with AB by organising to have her in his class, and telling her she was beautiful and special.

“The offender then proceeded to single her out and brush up against her in class, take steps to spend time with her alone, initially at the sports carnival, then asking her to babysit his children, and attending a pub where she would go with her friends on Friday nights,” Ms Blizard said.

“All of these steps, the Crown submits, were things undertaken by the offender as part of the grooming process.

“It’s highly relevant to the issue of exploitation and vulnerability that immediately before the offence was committed he said he would help her get over trauma and that after the offence was committed he said he hoped it was help

ful, and that it was a good start and she’d done well.”

The public defender did not make any submissions about the facts of the case – but the expert report by Dr Nielssen, read aloud in part by Judge Huggett, painted a bare picture of his life.

“The offender and his twin brother, Paul are the youngest of five children. He reports a generally happily happy childhood.

“Both his parents were employed throughout their lives. His father had gambling problems and apparently that resulted in the Dawson family losing their family home and rose by leading to a move into housing Commission premises,” the judge said, quoting Dr Nielssen’s report.

“The offender attended a selective high school, after which he obtained a teaching certificate and a Bachelor of Arts. He pursued a career in teaching until he was 55 years old. He then worked as the driver of a resort courtesy bus and had the management rights to a small housing complex until he relinquished that business due to the publicity surrounding his court proceedings.”

Judge Sarah Huggett of the NSW District Court.

Dawson, a former star rugby league player, told Dr Nielssen he’d never been a drinker, and had never used drugs.

He said he was close to one of the daughters he shared with Lynette, and to the daughter he had with AB.

“The offender spoke regularly with the daughter of that union prior to his incarceration, but it is unclear whether this contact has been maintained,” Judge Huggett said, adding Dawson had separated from his third wife, Susan, “due to stress associated with media attention.

“But apparently the offender remains on good terms with her and her family.”

Dawson, who still wears a gold ring on the third finger of his left hand, remained impassive in his small cell at Long Bay as the judge read her remarks.

“The offender has the support of his family, with whom he has regular video contact. He has only had limited personal visits from members of his extended family as a result of visits being cancelled.”

Dr Nielssen’s report said while Dawson had no major mental illness, he “has reported a decline in his memory, which appears to be related to the ageing process and blows to the head and concussion when he was younger.”

The report said “an MRI scan of his brain showed some scattered abnormality in the white matter of the brain cortex that the radiologist considered was most likely due to micro angiographic disease.”

Dr Nielssen noted that the offender’s cognitive functioning has declined over the last two years and he is of the opinion the offender has a mild cognitive impairment and that he is in the early phase of dementia.